text: Metal nitrides are produced using a variety of nitrogen sources.  The first example above is prepared from amide (NH) as the N source:
  :OsO  +  KNH   →  KOsON  +  HO
  Most commonly however, nitrido complexes are produced by decomposition of azido complexes.  The driving force for these reactions is the great stability of N. Nitrogen trichloride is an effective reagent to give chloro-nitrido complexes. In some cases, even N and nitriles can serve as sources of nitride ligands.